


Be Aware of Danger

by windydays



Series: Equilibrium [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Junior Wonwoo, M/M, Research Team, Sophomore Mingyu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 09:22:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16216118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windydays/pseuds/windydays
Summary: Life is as uneventful as it gets for Jeon Wonwoo until the addition of a new student to his research team: Kim Mingyu.





	Be Aware of Danger

**Author's Note:**

> I got inspired to write this as I'm a chem major doing research and thought it would be fun to have a minwon/meanie fic in this setting! This is the first work on a series I plan to write in the same university au. Hope you enjoy this!

While working on the lab report that he’s supposed to hand in the next day, Wonwoo’s peace of mind is disrupted when he receives a message from his research mentor. There’s going to be a new addition to the research team. He doesn’t know how to react to the news, but he certainly doesn’t feel excited. _We are doing okay so far. Why add someone else?_ , he thinks.

Wonwoo, a chemistry major, is on his senior year at the Seoul National University. He has been part of his research team since last year. They call themselves a team, but they are are just two: Hwang Minhyun, a graduate student, and Wonwoo himself. Actually, they are under the guidance of the department’s dean, but she usually only talks to Minhyun. Wonwoo feels out of touch from the intellectual part of the research because of this, but Minhyun tries to relay everything (he can remember) he talked with his mentor to Wonwoo.

When Wonwoo gets to the lab, he sees Minhyun talking to an unknown young man, whom he assumes is the new member of the team. _Whew, let’s do this._

“Hello, there!” Minhyun greets Wonwoo.

The other man turns to face Wonwoo, flashing the brightest smile Wonwoo has seen in a long time.

“Hi, Wonwoo. I’m Kim Mingyu,” the man presents himself, extending his hand. He keeps smiling, showing his crooked teeth which Wonwoo finds weirdly adorable.

Wonwoo shakes his hand, “I’m Jeon Wonwoo.”

“I got to go now, so Wonwoo, could you help Mingyu to build a cell and run a voltammetry?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

Minhyun leaves, so Wonwoo has the lab all for himself, and Mingyu. Wonwoo loves to work when the lab is relatively empty, but right now he’s with someone he barely knows, so he doesn’t feel as relaxed.

“I- I’m-” Mingyu struggles to form a coherent sentence.

“Go ahead. No need to feel nervous,” Wonwoo washes the glassware while Mingyu tries to focus on a random point to avoid eye contact.

“I’m sorry if I’m bothering you,” Mingyu scratches his head out of shyness. “I will try my best to learn well and not mess up.”

“That I hope so,” Wonwoo shakes the glassware in an attempt to leave them with the least possible water droplets. “And you’re not bothering me. It might seem like I’m mad, but you can’t change your face, can you?”

Mingyu laughs at the eldest’s comment, and Wonwoo lets out a huff that was supposed to be a laugh. Although he didn’t show it, Wonwoo was awed by how charming the other’s laugh was. Wonwoo doesn’t know much about Mingyu, but he certainly knows that he likes his husky voice a bit too much.

Wonwoo takes the glassware to the drying oven. Mingyu remains at the same spot, but looking alert at Wonwoo to see if he was called to help or to be explained something. The cue never comes, so he waits until Wonwoo goes back to where he was.

Wonwoo makes his best efforts to keep up a good conversation, and it works. He doesn’t need to do much, as Mingyu does pretty much all the talking. He learns Mingyu comes from Anyang and is on his second year, how much he loves golden retrievers and how he excels at cooking, or at least that’s what his roommates tell him.

After fifteen minutes, the annoying beeping of the drying oven interrupts them. Wonwoo gets the glassware, walking quicker than usual to the counter to avoid getting burned. He takes the electrodes out of their cases and opens the sulphuric acid bottle.

“You’re going to wash the cell with the acid,” Wonwoo shows Mingyu the process. “And throw the acid on this waste beaker. Then, you’re going to attach the lid with parafilm.”

Wonwoo steps aside, and Mingyu moves closer to to the counter. He takes the sulphuric acid bottle to serve some of it on the cell.

“Move!” Wonwoo shouts when Mingyu drops the bottle over the counter, the acid forming a puddle and some of it dripping to the floor.

“I- I’m sorry,” Mingyu apologizes, looking if he had gotten some acid over him.

“Are you okay?” Wonwoo asks, but his tone comes out rougher than intended.

“Yeah, I think so,” Mingyu keeps standing over the same tile, not knowing what to do.

“Stay there and don’t move unless I tell you.”

Wonwoo walks towards the corner of the lab where the spilling kit is, thinking how he was in for a wild ride thanks to the newbie’s arrival.

\-----------

“Don’t worry, Wonwoo. It’s going to be okay,” Mingyu throws his arm around his friend’s neck.

“I know, but I still get nervous. What if they ask me questions I don’t know how to answer?” Wonwoo plays with the straw of his iced latte drink.

“That’s not happening because you’re a genius! And if you really don’t know, just say that," Mingyu shrugs. "You aren’t supposed to know everything.”

“Yeah, I guess. Thanks, Mingyu,” Wonwoo sweetly smiles at the youngest.

Their friendship has come a long way since that first eventful meeting. Spending endless hours at the lab together has inevitably made them closer. Wonwoo wasn’t too fond of Mingyu’s clumsiness, but after the necessary amount of training, Mingyu held his ground effectively.

After some weeks, they would spent time together outside their work area. What was a weekly meeting at a nearby restaurant to ease their minds from their hectic schedule turned to spending almost every evening together at one of their rooms. With time, they found out that chemistry wasn’t their only common interest. Both liked gaming, so they pulled off some all-nighters playing online as a team or as a rivals when Wonwoo always would win. They also liked tennis, so some weekends they would go to the local court and play a match, which was usually won by Mingyu thanks to his impressive serve.

One night, both tired from their unusually long match, they threw themselves on the bed at Wonwoo’s room. The silence that had took over seemed like the perfect opportunity for Mingyu to drop a question that had been irking him for some time.

“Are you into guys?”

Wonwoo wasn’t expecting that question, but it wasn’t exactly shocking neither. In the hundreds of conversations they had had until then, not even once they talked about girls. Wonwoo was under the impression both played for the same team, and that question practically confirmed it.

“Yeah.”

Mingyu just hummed in response. He had thought that the question was a confession by itself. Four months later, and neither has made a move.

In some minutes, Wonwoo is going to stand in front of around a hundred people to present their research results so far. Wonwoo has practiced many times with Mingyu back in their dorms, but that didn’t make the situation less overwhelming. It’s not like he’s presenting in front of people not knowledgeable in the topic that could believe whatever he projects in the big screen. His audience is going to be people immersed in the world of science, more specifically chemistry, that could point out any flaw on his project.

After Wonwoo gives him the signal, Mingyu presses the enter button on the computer and the first slide shows up. “Good evening, my name is Jeon Wonwoo, undergraduate researcher at Seoul National University.” His speech flows smoothly from then. He explains all the graphs in an understandable, concise way and brilliantly answers a pair of questions mid-presentation. Everything is going perfectly, but when Mingyu presses the enter button for the twentieth time, the screen goes blank. The murmurs of the spectators don’t wait to heat up as Mingyu frantically tries to make the next slide appear. He does everything that comes to his mind, but nothing works.

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Wonwoo says in a higher tone that the one he had used before to get the audience’s attention. “As you can see, my partner is a little clumsy and it seems he saved the wrong presentation. I apologize for not making sure everything was set up correctly before starting.”

The dozens of people watching him seem to understand the situation for the exception of some. He tries to find the department’s dean in the crowd. When he sees her seemingly joking with the couple beside her, he breathes a sigh of relief. He gives a brief explanation of the missing content and finishes the presentation by answering another round of questions.

He steps down off the stage, glaring at Mingyu who had an unreadable expression, like he was waiting for Wonwoo’s reaction to decide how to react himself. Wonwoo skips by Mingyu and goes directly to talk with the dean. Mingyu slowly makes his way outside the building, sitting at the stairs in the back exit. He fixes his gaze on the foliage of the cedar tree in front of him, erasing all thoughts from his mind in an attempt to get over the previous embarrassment.

Around half an hour later, Mingyu is in the same position. His back hurts at this point, but he’s too afraid to go back inside and confront Wonwoo. The glare he had received earlier wasn’t a foretelling of something good.

“Are you into botanics now?” A familiar voice snaps Mingyu out of his trance. “What are you doing there?” Wonwoo says while making his way to sit beside Mingyu.

“I’m so sorry, Wonwoo. I- I thought I had double checked. Hell no! I triple checked, but still I messed it up. Are you out of the research team now?”

Mingyu spits his words so fastly that not many would’ve understood what he said, but Wonwoo wasn’t in that majority.

“Mingyu. Breathe in. Breathe out.”

Mingyu does as told, but his eyes start flooding with some tears.

“Wait. No! Why are you crying?” Wonwoo embraces Mingyu, who sobs a little harder when their chests clash together.

“You are out of the team, aren’t you? Because of me you’re out?”

Petting the other’s head, Wonwoo replies, “I’m not out of the team.”

Wonwoo chuckles when Mingyu pushes himself away from the hug with a shocked face.

“You aren’t?”

“I’m not,” Wonwoo giggles, ruffling Mingyu’s hair. “And anyway, why do you ask about me? Shouldn’t you be worried about if you are still in the team?”

“I care a lot about you, Wonwoo. My heart wouldn’t have been able to take it if you were ditched because of my mistake. Not at all,” Mingyu starts to tear up when he finishes the sentence.

“Why are you crying again?”

“I- I don’t know. I’m exhausted, I guess. And may- maybe I have some feelings for you? I think that’s why I got so worried when all of this happened.”

Wonwoo stays completely silent. Mingyu had just confessed to him? Although he didn’t accept it some weeks ago, this was the moment he has been waiting the most for the past month.

“Four months, Wonwoo. Four months waiting for you to get it. Why do you think I asked you if you were into guys?”

“You- you did it because you liked me? You liked me since then?”

“Oh God, Wonwoo. I swear you use all your brain cells to study and none to analyze other stuff!” Mingyu laughs, reminding Wonwoo of the first day they met.

“You know what? I’m really dumb to not had gotten that, but we can be dumb and dumber.”

“I’m dumb, you’re dumber,” Mingyu sing-songs.

“Remember what happened just,” Wonwoo checks his wristwatch, “forty minutes ago.” He cups the other’s cheek and gives him a soft peck on the lips. Mingyu stays dumbfounded on his spot. Wonwoo stands up, making his way back to the building.

“Wait for me, dumber!” Mingyu shouts.

Wonwoo blocks his ears with his fingers, ignoring the call. Mingyu stands up to follow him, and he swears his heart hasn’t beaten faster than what it did when he saw Wonwoo covering his face with his hands and his ears colored bright red.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Any kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated!


End file.
